Columns

For people with diabetes, even a traffic jam can turn into a life-threatening emergency — which is why it’s so important to have an action plan in place.

The first step: Create a labeled, easy-to-grab emergency kit where you can stash your contact information, medications, testing supplies, food, water, and a source of glucose. The following tips will help you handle any diabetes emergency.

Despite the horror stories I read on Facebook, the tales told on the six o’clock news and the countless people that come through my office, it still amazes me that people still fall prey to scams and schemes of thieves and bandits.

I am not talking about a guy in a mask holding people at gunpoint and taking their money. The modern day thief is much more clever than this and his identity is quite different from what we once held in our minds as the image of a robber.

At a time when police agencies are finding it difficult to recruit qualified candidates to become officers and local municipalities are cash-strapped, a piece of proposed legislation that would permanently increase state supplemental incentives for law enforcement officers, firefighters and volunteer fire departments shows real promise in helping retain and recruit officers and firefighters and in providing money to assist volunteer fire departments with equipment purchases.

In a tradition familiar to many, on Thanksgiving I will sit down with loved ones and we will take turns giving thanks for the blessings in our lives. We know who we are by what we hold dear.

I recently had the privilege of sitting down with leaders from diverse groups across Kentucky and learning what they are grateful for. Made up of working families, teachers and students, faith communities, vulnerable Kentuckians and more, they are grateful for things I thought worth sharing. They have given me permission to share them with you.

This week, our families and friends will sit down at the dinner table to celebrate Thanksgiving, the oldest of the American-based holidays.

Nearly 400 years have passed since the most famous of these harvest feasts was held by the Pilgrims and Native Americans. It didn’t become the holiday we recognize today, though, until President Washington and then President Lincoln helped solidify its place on the calendar, which Congress finalized in the 1940s by declaring it to always be on the fourth Thursday of November.

FRANKFORT – Other than during a rare boil-water advisory, most of us don’t think twice when we turn on the faucet. We just expect clean and plentiful water to be there.

For about 95 percent of Kentuckians, that’s exactly what we get each and every day from the 400-plus public and community water systems that serve the commonwealth. These systems meet or exceed health-based standards at an incredible rate of 99.73 percent.

The hustle and bustle of the winter holidays is well underway and the cool crispness of the autumn air is turning towards winter frost. Even as the weather changes and the holiday season comes upon us, we are still busy in Frankfort with interim joint committee meetings as well as planning for the 2017 Session of the General Assembly.

Seasonal Depression Order, also called SAD, is a type of depression that is triggered by the seasons of the year. Symptoms usually begin in late fall and early winter.

The most common type of SAD is called winter onset depression. More than a half a million Americans experience a winter depression, but are better come summer. Common symptoms of SAD are the following: